The book wants to be a kind of general commentary on the state of England and UK over the years

of the fight concerning Brexit therefore the idea of a very divided nation. Smith’s novels attempt to

address the paradox of the Brexit referendum result. Brexit is understood here as a dystopic, never-

ending ‘season’ of disorientation, disconnection and division. A reference to Brexit in the book is

when Brit and Florence are crossing the border and Florence says she doesn’t have a passport and

Brit replies “you don’t need it, non at the moment” referring to the situation with Scotland when

May was still at the government. Talking about border, Florence thinks that probably borders aren’t

made to divide but to unite and this is also the point of view of Smith because in an interview she

says borders draw a sort of a magic line between different places, which then becomes a threshold

to new places.

The first book is Autumn and it begins with a quote, that is actually a misquote from Dickens, of

Oliver Twist, which begins by “it was the worst of times”; it’s a misquote because the original was

“it was the best of times. Dickens is one of the most canonical authors in English literature and it is

an author who is often identified with one of the best interpreters of the idea of Englishness and

Britishness. Also, in Spring there is a reference to Dickens: Richard Doubledick is the main

character in a short story by Charles Dickens and it is the nickname that Paddy gave to Richard

since the first time they met. Instead, spring starts with “what we don't want is fact” referring to

Hard times, Dickens book. This can be related to the theme of fake news and the status of facts

nowadays. Once you accept the existence of fake news, the status of facts can be questioned and

have always to be checked.

THEMES:

HOPE is the most important theme in “spring” according to the author in interviews. Hope is a

belief in the possibility of transformation and confidence that the world can and will be saved by

children like Florence, because it changes the imaginary, you can hope in the realization of the

different and hopefully better society. We can find hope also in the way how one of Richard works

was born: there is a character called Andy Hoffnug. His name comes from a Beethoven musical

piece called An die Hoffnug, that means “in hope” related with the facts that she said “when I was

with him I was full of hope”

(The text she has looked upon all the romances as an homage to Shakespeare, the works of his latest

years which are characterised by a strong message of hope.)

WEATHER: Weather is everywhere in Smith’s seasonal novels, not only in reference to the

changing weather associated with seasons, preoccupation with weather. A reference I. the book is

when Brittany playing Winter and Florence playing Spring: If we were seasons, I would be

following you. You’d be the end of me, Brit said. You’d kill me off.

However, seasonality itself is at risk, as they exchange stories on the train to Scotland Florence

comments: five more nuclear bombs there’ll be no more seasons. Or when Florence tells Brit “she

would be environmentally minded” when Brit asks her she thinks she takes train instead of car.

CLOUDS: there are some references for example when paddy sons write an email to Richard and

they told him they lost all her picture that were on iCloud and Paddy favourite poem was “The

cloud” by Percy Shelley

at the poem and to the artist Tacita Dean and her work “a bag of air”. There is also one of the so

called “deet” who always look up to see clouds. Clouds are a symbol of freedom and

metamorphosis; therefore they have a value they aren’t just air.

POSTCARDS: they represent important points in the inside travel of a character or a feeling. For

example, at the exhibition devote to Tacita Dean, Richard buys 2 postcards one of which with

clouds. Also, a postcards structure is the one Richard propose for the script of the film. Also when

Brit and Florence meet Florence shows Brit a postcard telling her that she has to go there.

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The book wants to be a kind of general commentary on the state of England and UK over the years of the fight concerning Brexit therefore the idea of a very divided nation. Smith’s novels attempt to address the paradox of the Brexit referendum result. Brexit is understood here as a dystopic, never- ending ‘season’ of disorientation, disconnection and division. A reference to Brexit in the book is when Brit and Florence are crossing the border and Florence says she doesn’t have a passport and Brit replies “you don’t need it, non at the moment” referring to the situation with Scotland when May was still at the government. Talking about border, Florence thinks that probably borders aren’t made to divide but to unite and this is also the point of view of Smith because in an interview she says borders draw a sort of a magic line between different places, which then becomes a threshold to new places. The first book is Autumn and it begins with a quote, that is actually a misquote from Dickens, of Oliver Twist, which begins by “it was the worst of times”; it’s a misquote because the original was “it was the best of times. Dickens is one of the most canonical authors in English literature and it is an author who is often identified with one of the best interpreters of the idea of Englishness and Britishness. Also, in Spring there is a reference to Dickens: Richard Doubledick is the main character in a short story by Charles Dickens and it is the nickname that Paddy gave to Richard since the first time they met. Instead, spring starts with “what we don't want is fact” referring to Hard times, Dickens book. This can be related to the theme of fake news and the status of facts nowadays. Once you accept the existence of fake news, the status of facts can be questioned and have always to be checked. THEMES: HOPE is the most important theme in “spring” according to the author in interviews. Hope is a belief in the possibility of transformation and confidence that the world can and will be saved by children like Florence, because it changes the imaginary, you can hope in the realization of the different and hopefully better society. We can find hope also in the way how one of Richard works was born: there is a character called Andy Hoffnug. His name comes from a Beethoven musical piece called An die Hoffnug, that means “in hope” related with the facts that she said “when I was with him I was full of hope” (The text she has looked upon all the romances as an homage to Shakespeare, the works of his latest years which are characterised by a strong message of hope.) WEATHER : Weather is everywhere in Smith’s seasonal novels, not only in reference to the changing weather associated with seasons, preoccupation with weather. A reference I. the book is when Brittany playing Winter and Florence playing Spring: If we were seasons, I would be following you. You’d be the end of me, Brit said. You’d kill me off. However, seasonality itself is at risk, as they exchange stories on the train to Scotland Florence comments: five more nuclear bombs there’ll be no more seasons. Or when Florence tells Brit “she would be environmentally minded” when Brit asks her she thinks she takes train instead of car. CLOUDS : there are some references for example when paddy sons write an email to Richard and they told him they lost all her picture that were on iCloud and Paddy favourite poem was “The cloud” by Percy Shelley at the poem and to the artist Tacita Dean and her work “a bag of air”. There is also one of the so called “deet” who always look up to see clouds. Clouds are a symbol of freedom and metamorphosis; therefore they have a value they aren’t just air. POSTCARDS : they represent important points in the inside travel of a character or a feeling. For example, at the exhibition devote to Tacita Dean, Richard buys 2 postcards one of which with clouds. Also, a postcards structure is the one Richard propose for the script of the film. Also when Brit and Florence meet Florence shows Brit a postcard telling her that she has to go there.

I’m thinking, in his context, of your second book, because of 2 analogies:

The first one is a comment during an interview, when Amid said that a novel is an invitation to dance, it invites the reader to dance;
The other one is when in another interview he commented that we used to say that we can be moved by a book, of course, in the sense that the book creates an emotional response in the reader. But he adds that the novel can also move the reader more literally, by shifting him, by separating him or her from their costumery ways of interpreting the world and move them towards the possibility of a different vista. the 2 writers are very different. But they share this idea of using speculative fiction in order to create new alternative imaginaries which are engaged with beauty but also engaged with changing the world. “the novel matters because if one of us is exiled, we’re all exiles, we are all homesick, and the novel is one of our homes”. -> So a novel has a hope, has a space of welcoming, has an act of hospitality , that their reader take part in their making, be present in them, be creative in response to them, and in being part, be the opposite of excluded, be active, be alive to them and them in turn alive to the reader”.-> This also is a point of poetics that Ali Smith shares explicitly with Mohsin Hamid. ABOUT THE STYLE Sometimes Ali Smith really reinvents the landscape or whatever she is describing by always filtering through a situated perspective: one person at a given moment after a given shock or after a given moment of hopeful expectation. We see the importance of this ability to consider context very important because the message is not to escape from reality, but to try to do as much as we can with this reality rather than accept it as it is. We can talk about the gift of context: the ability to see context with different eyes, wide-opened, curious and willing to experiment with different angles. It’s important to try to understand language, to read through language. Language is a fundamental aspect because our ability to respond, to analyse a situation, can be limited if you limit language, if you keep using the same word and cut off the rich variety of synonyms and antonyms. A poor language ends up by prioritizing simple or monological thought and statements. Language makes feel the audience that someone wants to speak for you and wants to enter with you into a pact of affective bonding around the truth. Ali Smith is clearly working on intertextuality and she is making a very positive assessment both about the fact that books like this have to become a pattern have to become source of inspiration There are different registers in the book: we have the twitter language, a language of hate and anger; it’s a new type of language that can also teach something (for example when Richard finds out what is an hashtag and read about #MeToo and starts to think about how he behaved with women during his life). There is a mix of ancient and new language: the book passes through pop song, flashback and references to classical literature. There is also a space for Gaelic language thanks to Alda who explains the origin of the world slogan (grido di guerra, ed è ciò che lo slogan è sempre stato, qualcosa di violento). CHARACTERS: Paddy: she is a kind of hybrid: English but Irish. This factor of Irishness posits her outside the mainstream, but what posits her outside the mainstream most is the fact that she sees through the patina of common places, the patina of customs: she is one who thinks deep, she's one who feels deep, on top of the seeing deeply in her capacity as an artist. This figure of Paddy can be almost considered as an elder Florence, someone who can see how the world develops and always invite to be honest to themselves. Instead, her twins are her opposite, with less emotions and attached at the banality of life: for example, when they are organizing their mother funeral. BRIT : her name is a strong representation of British national identity. She works in the detention centre and in the beginning we can see her as dehumanized from her behaving with migrants. It’s

(Princess who marries Pericles is believed to have died in a shipwreck) and baby female child who also will be lost and then in the final found back. This character of Marina along with the character of her mother who will also come back to life in the sense that she also is found at the end of the play, has an interesting role in the last part of the play and she appears to be sweet but also very sensible , very sedated and it is a female character which seems to be born for reconciliation, fostering a culture of peace È un pezzo molto provocatorio dove Florence incorpora tutte le cose sbagliate del rapporto della Gran Bretagna con i richiedenti asilo trattenuti. Quello che è interessante è che all’incalzare di domande, il direttore risponde quasi sempre con un’altra domanda iniziale, tutto autodifensivo. Il dialogo è molto interessante perché da un lato ci fa vedere molti dei maltrattamenti della limitazione di libertà del sistema, del processo di richiesta asilo, dall’altro ci mostra l’incapacità di andare oltre alla propria paura di perdere il posto, una minaccia per la sua sopravvivenza.“grazie, sei stato molto informativo”. Lui è nel pieno panico: “informativo? Ho detto qualcosa che non avrei dovuto?”. La ragazzina è una portatrice di salvezza, di bontà, di libertà. abbiamo un altro di quei pezzi molto duri di twitter che fa cenno sia all’omicidio della deputata Coks tre giorni prima della votazione, sia al caso di Jimmy Sabbel, noto conduttore della BBC che è stato licenziato perché uscito uno scandalo di pedofilia. Persone note che nascondono cose oscure che vanno a minare chi ha diritto di parola. “Even so, what you’re doing is impossible (…) all about transformation”. Ecco, le belle storie, le buone storie di oggi, sono storie di trasformazione

When I first read the first line I immediately thought of what we had said together in class about Brexit. I think it was Golson (It resonates very much with what Farage says.) speech when he said that people are tired of experts basically. The fact that we don't want facts. We don’t want people to remind us what facts are, so we despise experts in a way She’s been working very much with myth, with ancient mythology, with ideas of ghosts and phantoms.Richard Lease is an elderly film director who has been asked to make a film about Katherine Mansfield and Rainer Maria Rilke. Brittany Hall is an officer at a detention centre, and Alda Lyons is an out-of-work librarian who hangs out in a sleeping bag in a disused coffee truck.”“The person who brings them together is one of Smith’s magical characters. The opposite of Story is politics. Therefore her definition of politics. “Politics is the opposite where our stories meet other stories or block other stories, and where people decide that other stories can't be heard because my Story is more important than your Story. All that stuff you could call it politics. Ali Smith’s magical realistic elements in spring (and also summer,2020) include a covert network of people assisting people held in immigration detention centre to flee to the North of Scotland by train”. It uses the idea of the US Underground Railroad, two considerations not of course a proper railroad therefore a community of people practising civil resistance in the name of equal rights, but it also a novel by Colson Whitehead called the Underground Railroad: she goes across several States and in every states she experiences some very negative aspects of the history of the United States racism. All the novels ─ thematize the problem space of xenophobia, migration and asylum, reference to concise style of texting such as Twitter and in general texting. the imaginary daughter to whom he speaks is a fiction of his mind but still it is a young voice and it performs the same role as Florence insofar as it tells the truth, whenever he tries to mythologise something about his past, for something about the motivations of other peoples around him, this voice of the imaginary daughter tells him very ironically how things should actually be interpreted and oblige him to be honest, but to be honest with himself. Si viene a sapere attraverso vari flashback come fosse un progetto di ricongiungimento, persone che separatamente viaggiavano con una rete che si ispirava all’ underground railroad che aiutava gli schiavi negli stati uniti, che aiutano i rifugiati che stanno per essere deportati a fuggire verso il nord e ottenere poi dei passaggi verso gli stati della Scandinavia. Il van di caffè non faceva il caffè perché era una copertura. Alda, interrogata, spiega che tutti i membri di quella rete si chiamano per definizione Alda o Aldo e ognuno fa quello che può. Richard lo troviamo, che è quello che passa queste informazioni perché Richard ha declinato di scrivere quella storia assurda di Rilche e Catherine Mansfield per preparare un importante documentario sulla condizione dei rifugiati e di queste reti che vanno contro lo hostile environment del governo. knowing that structure [parola molto pesante perchè la struttura è una bella cosa: ognuno fa una griglia per quello che vuole sviluppare, rende più facile la pragmatica della vita, ma ci mette niente a trasformarsi in the risonable alternative e quindi è importante sapere che non è sempre necessario buttarla ma bisogna sapere ed essere a proprio agio nell’idea che mutare si può, se cambia qualcosa che ce lo fa desiderare. “The novel is a form that takes time, flips time, gives us time, renews old matter, reminds you what life is and how layered (stratificata) and dimensional it and language and thought and being are”. This is a very interesting sequence, and the one which is constitutive of Ali Smith’s art: you should keep it as a skeleton for your analysis. Time, language, thought and being, they are each functional to the development and to the constitution of the other. “It allows understanding, analyses the notion of structure while being a structure of its own”: a picture and every word paints a thousand of them, and because the novel’s footwork, its choreography with its partner in the dance, the reader, is why and how it moves us, […]”. Si parla della sua riduzione a documento, a quella faccia che c’è sul foglio A4 nel quale si parla di lui, del suo arrivo e poi anche della sua riduzione a notizia, ad argomento di conversazione nel caso che si tratti di un dramma, di un film o di altre rappresentazioni immaginarie, il migrante diventa anche quella storia che serve a commuoverci e a sentirci buoni. Non guardate per lo più la mia faccia per vederci me, la mia faccia vi riflette alcune delle emozioni che provate nell’immaginare me, la mia faccia vi restituisce un riflesso del vostro volto ideale. Il brano precedente, sempre a pagina 126 allude chiaramente al poster breaking point con Nigel Farage davanti, subito prima del voto per la Brexit.

Ali Smith's 'Seasonal Quartet': Brexit, Hope, and Intertextuality - Prof. De Michelis, Appunti di Cultura Inglese I

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